


Brewing Joy

by Lilyliegh



Series: Appleshipping Week 2018 [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Friendship/Love, Potions, Rin is a witch and Yuugo is her customer, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 05:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14301660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilyliegh/pseuds/Lilyliegh
Summary: Though Rin claims that potions aren't a cure-all kind of magic, there are some perks to drinking potions. One day, Yuugo comes to the shop looking for a "make me think clearly" potion.





	Brewing Joy

**Author's Note:**

> for Appleshipping Week day 04: future  
> ... it's more like a future-ish au, but technically a fantasy au. i didn't follow the prompt that well ^^;;

“You want to … be taller?” Rin adjusts her hat, flicking the ends of her green hair out of her face. 

The little boy at the counter nods. “Make me as tall as an oak tree!”

Rin chuckles behind her hand. “I don’t know if I can make you  _ quite  _ that tall, kiddo, but …” She chews thoughtfully on her lip, then says, “Hang tight, I’ll be back with something.” Then she bustles away. Behind her is a wall of shelves drooping under the weight of at least a hundred clay pots. No wooden shelves have ever cracked and fallen – there’s magic in the world for that – but every so often Rin hears a soft groan behind her and she crosses her fingers that she won’t hear a crash from a fallen pot.

Thankfully, today all that Rin can hear is the soft murmur outside of pedestrians bustling to and fro in the crisp, spring air. Inside her little shop, it’s even quieter, with just the sounds of the little boy breathing heavily onto her countertops.

Rin heads along the shelves, pulling this and that from different-sized pots. She grabs some herbs and berries, both dried and crinkling in her palms, and tosses them into a bowl. Then she grabs another pot, this one much smaller, and pours from it a thick, goopy syrup that covers the herb like a glaze.

“What  _ is  _ that?” the kid asks.

“A ‘make me taller’ potion,” Rin says. “That is what you wanted, right?”

The little boy nods his head, nearly smacking his chin on the countertop.

“Coming up then.”

Rin puts the lid on the pot and gives it a couple good shakes. Then, with the pot balancing on all five fingers of her hand, she mumbles a soft enchantment – just a few words, more of a breath of air than anything else. The little boy’s eyebrows rise, but Rin keeps her attention on the pot. Then, after a moment, she shakes the pot once more.

“That’s it.”

The little boy cocks his head to the side. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Rin repeats. “Here, let me get you a cup.”

She reaches under the counter and pulls out a small, paper cup. There’s a stamped design on the front of a silver bracelet – Rin’s trademark for her shop. She opens the lid and pours the mixture inside. No longer quite so syrupy, it looks more like purple fruit juice and smells as sweet as candy. After she pops a lid on it, Rin pushes the drink towards the little boy.

He doesn't step forward.

Rin gives it another slight push. “Well, drink up.”

The little boy takes it, but he doesn’t raise it to his lips. He chews on the lid with his front teeth, looking up at her through a pair of big, orange eyes. 

“Will I really grow taller?” he asks.

“Not right away,” Rin says, “else you’d be shooting up to the roof and I’d have some repairs to do.” She laughs, and smiles when she sees the little boy grinning into his drink. “But you’ll get a bit taller, maybe even taller than your friends.” She leans forward on the counter, crossing her arms in front of her. “I can’t work miracles, but I can do a lil magic.”

The little boy’s smile grows, and he tips the cup back. He makes a face as the first droplets hit his tongue, but he doesn’t drop the cup until nearly half of it has been drunk. With purple stains all around his lips, he tells her, “I’m going to be taller than my parents now!”

“I bet you will be,” Rin says. “Eat good food too, all right – don’t make the magic do all the work.”

The kid probably doesn’t hear her, too busy sucking back the rest of the drink and trying to open the door. He heads out with another wave. When the door closes, Rin feels a slight shift in energy; there’s not quite so much excitement in the room with the child gone, and she leans further over the counter. Through the foggy window light creeps into her shop and on the counter, and it tickles the side of Rin’s cheek. 

If she tilts her head just so, she can see the busy streets outside. It won’t be long before someone else pops their head in, and Rin will make a potion just for them. She always wonders why everyone wants to change so much about them: make them taller, shorter; talk more, talk less; have more confidence, be smarter. 

She sighs.  _ Can’t y’all just be happy with who you are sometimes? _

But then again, she supposes it must be pretty fun to have magic on your side to make you a little taller, a little smarter, and little happier.

_ Slam!  _

The door crashes into the wall, and in steps a foot, then a leg, then an entire person wearing a white jumpsuit, the kind that makes Rin thinks this guy will be heading to the moon. She stifles a giggle into her fist as the new figure turns to face her. He’s young and charming, with a round baby-face framed by yellow bangs and unruly blue hair. What catches Rin’s eye the most are Yuugo’s wings, sharp, blue crystals jutting out of his back. 

The boy turns around and nearly knocks a row of candles off a shelf too.

Rin closes her hand round her lips to muffle her gasp. This guy – he’s going to break all her stuff. Those wings are beautiful, sure, but any minute Rin’s going to actually hear something shatter and it won’t be the pots behind her.

The guy rubs his head and chuckles sheepishly. He looks cute, at least. Rin sticks out her bottom lip and pouts at him.

“You break it, you buy it,” she says.

“Will try my best,” the guy says. “And Yuugo, sorry – call me Yuugo.”

Rin raises an eyebrow. She only knows three of her regular clientele on a first name basis, and she certainly didn’t learn their names on day one. But as the name rings in her ears, Rin finds herself smiling a bit more. Yuugo is a cool name, rolling off her tongue like syrup.

Yuugo leans on the counter. “Your name?”

“My … oh, Rin. My name’s Rin.”

Yuugo juts out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Rin-rin.”

“Just …” She holds her tongue. Rin-rin sounds … cute. Cute, and a bit childish, and wholly embarrassing so she’s glad no one else is in the shop today to hear it too. Rin feels her cheeks and ears go red, but she brushes it off with a slight cough.

“What can I do for you today?”

Yuugo has his back to her though, gazing round the shop floor. There’s a lot to take in, Rin realises. Wicker baskets are everywhere, some cradling last month’s overstock of mason jars. There are candles on the shelves too, all shapes and styles and smells. Most of the flowers are outdoors in the warm sunshine, but a couple species can handle being in the dimmer shop.

“Hey,” Rin tries again, trying to gather Yuugo’s attention. “What can I –”

The rest of her words don’t make it out of her mouth. Yuugo spins around, and his wings clunk right into her face. To her surprise, his wings aren’t as light as she imagined. They knock her to the side and down, and Rin brings both hands to her face and groans from the pressure. It tickles and burns all across her cheeks and nose.

Across from her, Yuugo gasps. “Oh gosh, oh Rin-rin, I –”

“It’s fine,” Rin says, groaning out the final syllables. She sniffs lightly, and then brings her hands down. “It’s –”

Yuugo gasps again, this time with his eyebrows shooting up into his blond hair. “Blood.”

“Blood?” Rin repeats, and then it dawns on her. She brings her thumb up under her nose, and when she pulls away there’s red coated along her skin. She feels the blood begin to drip down her nose, slow and steady. Quickly, she reaches into the nearest drawer and yanks out a handkerchief. The contact with the fabric makes her wince, but she pinches her nose and tilts her head back.

Meanwhile, Yuugo has gone frantic. He paces to and fro, his wings fluttering open and closed to the beat of his no-doubt-racing heart.

Rin peers out of the corner of her eye. “You’re going to break something,” she says, voice muffled by the fabric.

“I’m – Rin-rin!” His eyes begin to fill with tears when he looks at her. “Tell me, are you OK? Do you need to see the medic? Are you going to pass out?”

“I’m not,” Rin says, “but you’re as white as a ghost, Yuugo, so how about you sit down? I’m fine, just a little nosebleed.”

Yuugo nods his head stiffly. There’s no place to sit though, not unless he wants to climb up on the counter and risk whacking her again with his glass wings. So he stands as still as he can, fingers flexing and toes tapping. He can’t seem to sit still, and if Rin were to guess his mind must have been running a million miles per second. He doesn’t move though, and so Rin takes a seat on the counter, still holding the cloth to her nose.

“I’m sorry,” Yuugo says, dipping his head. 

“It’s fine,” Rin says. “Don’t worry about it. The bleeding should stop soon anyways.”

Yuugo nods, though his face still looks glum. 

“Can I help you get something?” Rin says. “Did you come looking for a potion?”

As if realising why he’s here, Yuugo’s head snaps up. “I can get it another day when you’re better actually, don’t worry –”

“Yuugo,” Rin says, rolling his beautiful name off her tongue once more, “it’s fine. I’m fine – doesn’t even hurt. But you’re going to give me a headache with all that babbling, all right? Tell me what I can make for you and I’ll do it.” She tilts her head to the side, offering what she hopes is a soft, gentle smile. The brim of her hat falls a bit in front of her eyes, and she pushes it up so she can see him more clearly.

Yuugo nods to her, wiping unshed tears from his eyes. “Well, I guess … a potion to make me think more clearly.”

“… think more clearly?” Rin repeats. “Like a memory potion?”

Yuugo shakes his head. “More like …” He opens and closes his fingers, trying to jog his memory. “You know that feeling when you start a task and you never finish it because you get caught up in another task? Or when you want to start something but your mind only remember step three and you need to do step one first? Or when you start something else because you’re procrastinating on something, and you know you have to do the other thing but yet you can’t?”

Heaving a sigh, Yuugo leans forward on the counter, so close that Rin can see his long lashes, like he’s growing wings on his eyes too. “You ever get those kinds of feelings, Rin-rin?”

She doesn’t. She starts one task and finishes it, or she starts several tasks because she knows she can get them done together. She doesn’t get distracted, and when she’s does it because she’s remembered that she can do two things at once. Hearing Yuugo talk about that struggle though reminds her that perhaps there’s a reason why not everyone’s house is tidy, or why some people can’t just  _ do  _ stuff.

Her silence speaks volumes.

Yuugo sinks down onto the counter, bumping his chin on the smooth surface. “You don’t …”

Rin nods. She doesn’t, and though she might try and understand, her mind just can’t quite imagine not having all the steps already in place.

Rin leans down until her chin is on the counter too, and she looks ahead to try and see Yuugo’s sparkling, blue eyes. “I don’t think I can understand that like you do … but when you explained it to me, I remembered a potion that might help you. So … thanks.”

“For?”

“Thanks for telling me,” Rin says. She pops herself back up and dusts off her dress. “Now, I need to focus or else I’m going to mess this up, so why don’t you –”

“I can help!”

“You can _ not,”  _ Rin says, and she doesn’t mean to, but she wags her finger. “I didn’t just get this job because any ol’ bloke can do it – I’ve trained for this. No, you need to wander around the shop and not disturb me. I’ll have it ready for you, don’t you worry.”

“Fine,” Yuugo says with a huff. 

Satisfied, Rin turns around and begins pulling pots off the shelf. She hasn’t made this particular potion in ages, and it requires so many ingredients that she soon has to set her mixing bowl down on the table because it becomes too heavy to carry. Some ingredients – roots and powders – go into the bowl; liquid ingredients, and the petals of various flowers, she brews inside a charcoal-black cauldron. 

Over the corner of the pot, Rin can’t help but watch Yuugo. For such a beautiful man with glass-like wings, he’s surprisingly uncoordinated. Rin hears him whack his wings more than once against the walls and shelves, and he lets out a little “gwah!” each time. More than once Rin has to stifle her giggles in her gloved hands, or pull the brim of her hat down to hide her blush.

“Hey, Rin-rin –”

“I’m working,” Rin says.

“Oh right.”

Yuugo also forgets the ‘be quiet’ rule too.

It takes nearly an hour to brew the ingredients. Many of them have to simmer over a low heat, and the dry and wet ingredients have to be folded together or else they’ll create an entirely different potion. But Rin cooks with a smile on her face, and soon the room smells like sweet syrup. 

When the potion is complete, Rin pours the concoction into a cup and pushes it across the counter. “Yuugo –”

She doesn’t have to finish the sentence. Yuugo comes bounding over, nearly toppling into the counter. When he sees the potion though, his eyes narrow.

“That’s … it?”

“What else were you expecting?” Rin says, folding her arms across her chest. “Candy? Cake?”

“It’s …” Yuugo swirls the glass around, sloshing the mixture up to the rim of the glass. Rin doesn’t see anything off about it though. Most potions are thick drinks, like health smoothies with a better smell and taste. 

“It’s going to help,” Rin says. “I promise.”

Unlike the little boy who came that morning, Yuugo doesn’t hesitate afterwards: he tips the glass straight back and chugs it down. Trying to get the last drops, he shakes it back and licks off the rim. Then, with a guffaw, he slams the drink down on the counter.

“It’s better than it looks!” he says.

“I’m glad.” Rin takes the glass from him and drops it into the sink to wash later. 

When she looks back though, Yuugo has sobered – not from an effect of the potion, Rin knows that, but he suddenly looks more contemplative and serious. “How will I know … it worked? Besides the obvious …”

“You mean,  _ How do I know this witch isn’t a fraud?”  _ Rin laughs aloud. “You’re not going to see the effects right away, or at least not how you’d want them to be seen. Potions aren’t magic – you don’t see the results exactly how you want it to be, and sometimes it takes a while.”

Yuugo nods. “I just need to take the one potion, right? Just one drink … and I can think clearly again?”

“Well …” Rin smacks her lips together. “I’m not quite sure about that. This isn’t really a cure-all potion – it’s meant to be to slow down your mind, like a sleeping potion for … awake people. I don’t know, I read it in a book once, and when I have racing thoughts sometimes I take it too. I just thought that maybe if it helped you … it would help me.”

“Do you take it regularly?”

Rin nods. “Daily.”

Yuugo visibly deflates like a balloon with a hole in it. He nearly falls back onto her counter, and by now Rin is certain there must be nose- and mouth-prints all over her counter from Yuugo flopping over it. She does get his feeling though. 

“Would it really be so bad if you came to see me every day?”

Though Yuugo doesn’t lift his head, Rin sees his wings vibrate.

“I mean, I can’t send you home with extra potions because this stuff expires and you have to use fresh ingredients. But I brew up my potion every morning at six am, and so if you came by I could share it with you. The shop isn’t even open that early either, so we wouldn’t have to worry about customers coming in.” Realising what she’s just said, Rin nearly backpedals on her words. “Or you know, you can come during business hours, preferably before noon because the potion’s effect with begin to wear after that, and I can just –”

Yuugo snorts loudly, and Rin sees a  _ very  _ visible mark on her countertop.

“I’d come here every morning to be with you.”

And though Rin has never, ever thought of herself as someone who can blush, or who would ever get so flustered as to turn pink in the face, Rin feels her cheeks warm. She pulls her hat down over her head, and turns around to begin putting her pots away and her dishes in the sink. She hopes Yuugo will see himself out on his own, but she just hears him chuckling, his cheek still on the table.

“I can't wait to see you tomorrow morning,” he says. 

Rin feels a smile on her lips. “Me too.”


End file.
